In the hunting industry, the average age of the hunter is increasing. The passion for hunting of this generation is not on the decline, and there is increasing concern about the declining physical abilities of hunters and for safety while hunting from an elevated platform. There are numerous hunting ladders that attempt to provide safe elevated platforms with an integral ladder for climbing. Conventional hunting ladders require a tree, utility pole or some other vertical column for support, as compared to freestanding tri-pods.
Some hunting ladders utilize a single metal tube (square or rectangular) for the column, which creates a major concern regarding the strength-to-weight ratio of the unit. Certainly the single column could be sized to facilitate a clear span from the ground to the point where the ladder connects to the tree, but then the unit becomes too heavy to be transported easily. As a result, it has become somewhat “standard” in the industry to add a brace from the mid-span of the ladder to a point on the tree to prevent the ladder column from collapsing as the user ascends. This makes the set-up of the unit more difficult because the user must adjust the brace for each particular tree diameter. Furthermore, as the user ascends the ladder above the brace connection point, the ladder has a tendency to “kick-out” at the bottom before the top can be securely attached to the tree. Therefore, this brace only adds to the complexity and cost of the system.
Other hunting ladders utilize a square or rectangular tube that incorporates an internal or external splice component, which allows adjacent sections to be connected. Such a design has several disadvantages. First, in order to make the adjacent sections relatively easy to assemble and disassemble, there must be a certain amount of clearance between the mating of male/female components. This clearance results in a non-stable, non-integral column after assembly. As this clearance is reduced, the unit becomes much more difficult to assemble and disassemble. Add to this the requirement that the mating sections be held perfectly parallel during the assembly process, and the task can become time consuming and frustrating.
By using an internal or external splice component to connect adjacent ladder sections without bolting the sections together, it is common to have separation of the ladder sections after assembly at the tree. Since most of these units are installed in late summer and early fall, the ground is usually dry and very firm. After the installer securely attaches the top of the ladder to the tree, it cannot move down the tree. Later in the year during hunting season, which is normally October through January, soil conditions are typically wet. As the user ascends the ladder, the bottom section can sink into the wet, softened soil, but the top section cannot move down the tree because it is securely attached to the tree. Consequently, the sections can separate, causing a catastrophic failure of the ladder column.
Some have attempted to address these shortcomings by fabricating a modular ladder column wherein each sidepiece of the ladder section has a pair of parallel square tubes connected together by a continuous W-W wire-form welded to the tubes. However, in such a design, adjacent sections are connected together with four sleeves, one sleeve for each of the four square tubes. While this design is structurally superior to the single-tube column design, it does not eliminate the tube-in-tube or tube-over-tube section jointing technique. Moreover, the four square tubes and the four sleeves must be held in perfect alignment for the adjacent sections to mate together, which adds to the difficultly of the assembly. Additionally, this is a terribly inefficient method to manufacture the column.
Steel tube fabrication has also proven inadequate because it is difficult to provide permanent non-skid ridges onto the ladder rungs for safety while climbing. Mud, snow and even water can cause the ladder rungs of most ladders to be dangerously slippery if the manufacturer does not add traction enhancing devices, such as adhesive-backed sandpaper or a metal strip with raised features to resist slipping.
Thus, it has been found that a need yet exists for an improved hunting ladder for attachment to a tree or pole, which ladder is safe in use, convenient, lightweight, easy-to-use, and easy to assemble. It is to the provision of such an improved hunting ladder meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.